Whether he's chasing deranged cockroaches around his apartment, kissing a beautiful actress on the set of an avant-garde film, finding himself stuck perilously on top of a fence in Memphis in the middle of the night, or provoking fights with huge German men, Jonathan Ames has an uncanny knack for getting himself into outlandish situations. He's also quite good at finding himself in banal situations and making them extraordinary. In his latest collection, I Love You More Than You Know, Ames proves once again his immense talent for turning his own adventures, neuroses, joys, heartaches, and insights into profound and hilarious tales.

Jonathan Ames has drawn comparisons across the literary spectrum, from David Sedaris to F. Scott Fitzgerald to Woody Allen to P. G. Wodehouse, and his books, as well as his abilities as a performer, have made him a favorite on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Alive with love and tenderness for his son, his parents, his great-aunt — and even strangers in bars late at night — in I Love You More Than You Know, Ames looks beneath the surface of our world to find the beauty in the perverse, the sweetness in loneliness, and the humor in pain. Open to what the world has to offer, Ames takes us where we'd be afraid to go alone. As a gentle tour guide, Ames is one of the most brilliant humorists of our day, and a writer whose work continues to astound in its originality and sheer verve.

"Novelist and humorist Ames writes: 'My whole oeuvre has become one big dysfunctional personal ad,' and this uneven collection of essays often feels that way. Ames (Wake Up, Sir!) informs readers several times of his height/weight vital stats. He is straight, but with a pansexual horniness that leads to inopportune erections, sordid encounters with prostitutes and an s&m session with a dominatrix and her transsexual boyfriend that makes him late for a play date with his son. He forthrightly, indeed obsessively, discloses details of his chronic rectal itch, his 'explosive episodes of Irritable Bowel Syndrome' and every other gross bodily eruption and excretion that plagues him. And there's a note of self-deprecatory preening as Ames marvels at the young lovelies he still manages to attract and the other celebrity writers he hangs with on his book tours. Sometimes Ames's trademark combination of (literal) bathroom gags, hipster grotesquerie and neurotic free association achieves an inspired synthesis of confessional humor, but with overuse its hilarity and freshness decays into a lazy reliance on shock effects and embarrassment laughs. When Ames manages to wrench his gaze from his navel (and other orifices) and connect with outside reality, his prose sparkles with offhand comic insights. Photos. Agent, Rosalie Siegel. (Feb.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Utterly delightful...I had moments of paralyzing laughter while reading these essays, but while Ames is certainly funny, his real gift is his generosity of spirit." Los Angeles Times

"Ames delivers more droll, exhibitionistic essays about his romantic misadventures, his beloved great-aunt and (of course) his underwear. His hyperkinetic readings are never less than joyous." Time Out New York

"As an essayist and storyteller at the former New York City club Fez, Jonathan Ames became Generation X's Woody Allen, a dirtier David Sedaris." Colorado Spring Independent

"[Ames's] latest collection lacks verve, drive and focus. Mostly, it feels lazy, or in need of a strong editor....Rare flashes of wit and energy, mostly drowned out by a sea of self-indulgent ramblings." Kirkus Reviews

"While not all readers will appreciate the oddball humor, Ames is a fine contemporary writer not to be ignored." Library Journal

"[Ames's] self-loathing humor is tops....And while he's unafraid to write about the pleasurable — but often embarrassing — human body, his lack of heart belies the book's tender title, I Love You More Than You Know. (Grade: B-)" Entertainment Weekly

Jonathan Ames has drawn comparisons across the literary spectrum, from David Sedaris to F. Scott Fitzgerald to Woody Allen to P.G. Wodehouse, and his books, as well as his abilities as a performer, have made him a favorite on the Late Show with David Letterman. Whether he's chasing deranged cockroaches around his apartment, kissing a beautiful actress on the set of an avant-garde film, finding himself stuck perilously on top of a fence in Memphis in the middle of the night, or provoking fights with huge German men, Jonathan Ames has an uncanny knack for getting himself into outlandish situations. In his latest collection, I Love You More Than You Know, Ames proves once again his immense talent for turning his own adventures, neuroses, joys, heartaches, and insights into profound and hilarious tales. Alive with love and tenderness for his son, his parents, his great-aunt — and even strangers in bars late at night — in I Love You More Than You Know Ames looks beneath the surface of our world to find the beauty in the perverse, the sweetness in loneliness, and the humor in pain.

Jonathan Ames is the author of the novels I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, and Wake Up, Sir! and the essay collections What's Not to Love? and My Less Than Secret Life. He is the editor of Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a former columnist for New York Press.